In modern commercial egg collection businesses, the methods and apparatus used in poultry egg collection must be such that damage to the eggs is minimized. For example in a modern operation in which the eggs of fowl, such as turkeys or chicken, are collected, the fowl can be kept in cages. The eggs are laid in the cages. The floor of a cage in which, for example, a chicken lays an egg can be disposed so that, when the egg is laid, it will roll out of the cage through an opening at the front thereof. A modern commercial egg layer operation can include one or more rows of cages arranged in the same horizontal plane and aligned beside a conveyor having a conveyor belt such that, when an egg rolls out of the cage opening after having been laid, it goes onto the conveyor belt. In this way, a large number of eggs can be collected by means of a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt brings the eggs which have rolled onto it to a collection area, at which the eggs may conveniently be further processed.
A modern commercial egg layer operation can also include a multiplicity of the rows of cages as described above, such rows being disposed above and below other rows in tiers. Cages may be constructed of wire or bars. Alternatively, automatic roll-away nesting boxes for poultry raised on the floor can be constructed of sheets of durable material such as galvanized sheet steel or plastic, as well as wires or bars.
In such an operation, when an egg rolls out of a cage or nest opening onto a conveyor belt, the egg can collide with another egg already on the conveyor belt. Such a collision can result in damage to one or both of the eggs such that one or both of the eggs can thereby be rendered less valuable than otherwise would have been the case, or even worthless. The conveyor belt often is not sufficiently wide to enable two eggs to be on it side by side.
As used herein, the term "cage" is intended to comprise any cage or nest enclosure in which an egg-laying animal can be kept or lay eggs, and includes any such enclosures made of wires, bars, sheet materials, or any combinations thereof arranged in tiers or floor cages.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a method and an apparatus which will reduce damage to eggs resulting from collision of a newly-laid egg, as it rolls out of the cage, with an egg already on the conveyor belt.